Oral history transcription: volunteer blog

Charlotte McDonnell is an oral history transcription volunteer with Wakefield Museums and Castles. She has been volunteering with us for one year and has transcribed 26 oral history interviews so far. 

In this guest blog she shares her experiences, including clips from some of her favourite interviews.

My role as an oral history transcription volunteer

As Wakefield Museums and Castles work on the development of a new museum and library for Wakefield, they are collecting a diverse range of oral history interviews. These interviews help to document and preserve Wakefield’s local history through the voices of the people who lived it.

My role in this project is to transcribe the oral history interviews. Transcriptions help museum staff to catalogue, search for and use oral history interviews. They also ensure that any audio that is shared through displays or digital content is accessible.

Listening carefully, I transcribe the audio of each interview exactly as it’s been spoken including keeping any grammatical mistakes and local dialect used. Usually, I’m able to get around four minutes transcribed per day.

After I finish the initial transcription I go over the whole interview again to correct any mistakes. It’s important to do this as there can be times where you think you got it right only to re-listen and realise you made an error!

From this role I’ve been able to learn so much about the people, projects and local organisations in Wakefield. 

Here are a few of my favourites:

A very important cooker

Helen Teagle talks about her mother’s 1953 Cannon Gas Cooker in her interview, which was carried out after she donated the cooker to the museum collections. 

To me the most interesting part of this interview is how much life story can come from one object. For example, Helen talks about how her parents bought the cooker at a showroom in Wakefield shortly after they got married and how they moved it to each new house that they bought.

The stories Helen tells about the many recipes her mother made using the cooker also give great insight into domestic life in the 1950s and onwards, which is an often underexplored area of history. 

In this clip, Helen talks about learning how to cook from watching her mother.

Download a transcript of Helen's interview clip here (opens in new window)

BaBi steps

I really enjoyed transcribing the interviews recorded as part of the BaBi Wakefield project. BaBi Wakefield is a research project that aims to reduce health inequalities in babies born in Wakefield through collecting maternity and child data. 

The project is run by Dawn Wright and through her interview we can see the incredible amount of work that goes into running BaBi Wakefield. 

Dawn Wright

Here Dawn speaks about her role in the project and why it is important:

Download a transcript of Dawn's first clip here (opens in new window)

One part of Dawn’s interview that really caught my eye was when she spoke about one of the positive changes a sister project, Born in Bradford, made to child asthma rates by changing the old bus routes. 

It really highlighted to me the important impact these projects are able to create.

Download a transcript of Dawn's second clip here (opens in new window) 

You can find out more about the BaBi Wakefield project in our online exhibition 

Getting wordy about Wakefield

Finally, the interviews of Philip Dawson Hammond, and Micheal Yates and Roger Manns from the Black Horse Poets provide a fascinating look into Wakefield’s literary organisations.

Members of the Black Horse Poets and Wakefield Word Group with their new patron, Councillor Jack Hemingway, in January 2024.

Philip in his interview spoke about the many stories he has from his time working for the Wakefield Express. 

My favourite one was about a new press that had been built to produce the newspapers that had been designed by Rockwell International - who designed a space toilet!

Download a transcript of Philip's clip here (opens in new window) 

Micheal Yates and Roger Manns in their joint interview spoke about the strong community dynamic that their poetry group fosters. 

I really enjoyed listening to the ways people come together to share their passion for poetry and help others grow by providing thoughtful feedback.

Download a transcript of Michael and Roger's clip here (opens in new window) 

You can find out more about the Black Horse Poets in their guest blog. 

Get involved!

If you would like to volunteer as an Oral History Transcription Volunteer, please get in touch by emailing muscasvolunteering@wakefield.gov.uk 

We'd love to hear from you!

What Wakefield Wore

In 2025, we'll be opening our New Library and Museum in the former BHS Wakefield building! 

Digital Volunteer Rebecca has been looking back at BHS Wakefield's history, and explores how it influenced 'what Wakefield wore' in this guest blog:

BHS Wakefield - at the heart of Kirkgate

The department store British Home Stores (commonly referred to as BHS) was founded in 1928 and ran for a total of 88 years. 

There were over 160 BHS stores, located at the heart of high streets across the country. They all closed in 2016.

BHS Wakefield opened in the 1930s on Kirkgate and quickly became popular with local residents. The store mainly sold home goods and clothing for men, women and children. It later also expanded to food. 

BHS Wakefield followed the ethos of encouraging local people to ‘buy British’.

 

Kirkgate in the 1970s - BHS is on the right

John G was a Manager at BHS Wakefield. He remembers that “BHS in the 1970s was very different to the store that entered the 21st century”. 

Over the years, the Wakefield branch underwent many changes. These included increasing the size of its sales floor, beginning to sell a wider range of merchandise and displaying their stock differently. 

Despite these changes, BHS was always renowned for looking after their staff members and creating a close-knit community.

Staff take to the stage

Throughout the 1960s and 70s BHS’s ‘ready-to-wear’ clothing made fashion trends accessible for everyone, including their own staff.

In the 1970s, the staff of BHS Wakefield staged their own fashion show to showcase the clothes available to buy in the store at the time. 

A member of the ‘You know you have lived in Wakefield when…’ Facebook group fondly remembers that the fashion show was held at Unity Hall and that it even made the local newspaper!

The fashion show featured many sought-after characteristics of 1970s fashion, such as floral prints, embroidery, synthetic fabrics such as polyester, athletic wear, different styles of dresses and a large array of nightgowns.

Photo courtesy of John G

In the photo above a staff member is wearing a neutral-coloured shirt dress paired with bold red accessories. 

Dresses in boxy styles such as these became popular in the 1970s. They followed the more ‘masculine’ style of women’s clothing which was seen in shirt dresses of the 1950s. 

Worn with heeled shoes and an on-trend neck scarf, they are showing how these dresses can be styled to look stylish, yet comfortable. 

Another popular trend at the time was bright coloured athletic wear, as shown modelled here:

Photo courtesy of John G

High-rise shorts are seen paired with hoodies and zip-up tops which show how sportwear began to be seen as fashionable rather than purely practical. 

Photo courtesy of John G

Fashion of the 1970s is known for its bold colours and prints, as in the photo above. 

Created in the 1960s, psychedelic prints, such as the one used to make this skirt, featured intense colours and flowing patterns. Here the swirls of different shades of purple come together to create the bold design of this long flowing skirt, also part of the stock at BHS Wakefield.

Photo courtesy of John G

One of the most prominent items of clothing showcased in the BHS Wakefield fashion show is their range of flowing nightgowns for both women and children. 

From long gowns made from satin fabrics with embroidered flowers, to shorter sheer styles with lace details, the variety of these nightgowns shows their popularity within Wakefield in the 70s.

Photo courtesy of John G

Special thanks to John G for sharing his memories and the photos featured in the article and members of local Facebook groups who gave details of their time at BHS.

We want to know ‘What Wakefield Wore’ in the 1970s! Were you inspired by the fashion show? 

What parts of 1970s fashion would you bring back today - or never want to see again? 

Let us know in the comments!

Click here to find out more about our New Library and Museum project

Ken Hanson: A Mining Deputy's Story

Lindsey Hanson from the Wakefield Word Writers' Group has interviewed a very important person indeed - her dad!

Ken Hanson was a Deputy at Ackton Hall Colliery and Kellingley Colliery.

She has written up their discussion in this guest blog. 

Ken recalls the everyday work and responsibilities of a Mining Deputy, the good friends he made and one he sadly lost along the way.

Please note: this blog post discusses mining accidents.

Ken Hanson with some of his mining career memorabilia

Ken:

I was just fifteen when I left school and wasn't sure what I wanted to do to start with. You didn't have many choices back then with jobs in my neck of the woods, even with decent grades from school. 

After a brief stint at mechanics, a Moulder in a place called Resil in Pontefract, and then six months as a Bus Conductor, I started working at Ackton Hall Colliery. 

I worked in several pits in the region over the time I was a miner, starting as a General Worker, then a Face Worker, before eventually making my way up to Deputy Grade One.

Training was essential, as it wasn't just coal you had to think about when going down the mine. There were so many safety aspects and regulations you had to be aware of, and to know your first aid in case of accidents. We had what is known as morphine safes down the pits too. 

A Deputy would be specially trained in delivering morphine should a serious accident happen. 

Ken with his safety lamp.
Only colliery officials had one of these and it lasted for the full shift.
Methane gas would go through the filters and alter the size of the flame, alerting the officials to how much methane was in the area. 

What was the most important part of the job? 

Ken: As a Deputy you oversaw health and safety every shift you were on. 

You would go down on your own first (this was known as a 'pre-shift') making sure everything was ok before the men would come down onto the job, making sure there was no methane gas about and everything was ok for them to start work. 

We had fans down the pit too, these were our main ventilation, so it was essential they were running correctly (these were also monitored from the surface). 

It was a big responsibility resting on your shoulders. All the rest of the men going down the mine after you were trusting you that everything was okay - dads, sons, brothers, best mates.  

How were you able to communicate if needed?

Ken: Once you were down there you could ring other places to contact the surface if needs be. These phones were mainly at gate ends and the controls inbye of the gate. 

Everyone who went down the mine were given two discs called checks. Everyone had their own different check number. One was left with the onsetter on the pit top, and you kept the other one for when you came back out to give to the onsetter then. 

That way the management knew if anyone was still down the mine.

Ken's pit check (number 3612) from his time working at the Kellingley Colliery.

Did you ever encounter an accident? How did you deal with them?

Ken: I was once on shift and a mate of mine was working near a dinting machine, the machine caught the belt that was used to transport muck onto the gate belt. It pushed my mate into the girder at the side trapping him. 

You had to act quickly. Sadly he was seriously injured; the lads got him out, but his leg was in a bad way. He had a hole in the top of his leg, he was taken out as quickly as they could, but sadly he ended up losing his leg. It was very rare for things like this to happen.

It was on one of my afternoon shifts where everything was going as it usually would and we would go down the mine, but we noticed the shearer was fast under the face chocks. 

The day shift lads had drilled some holes in front of the shearer, and I went over behind the machine and was preparing to fire some shots to free the machine when the roof above me collapsed and buried me. 

I was buried for four hours. I was doubled up, but I could breathe okay. 

My left arm was visible to the men digging me out. My index finger was hanging off and one of my mates shouted: “Ken, if I pull the finger off you will get a bit of compensation!”

“****** that.” I said (that’s mates for you) 

So they sewed it back on.

No matter how much training you do have, you're never trained for that type of thing. 

I am grateful to my mates for getting me out that day. I know how lucky I am to be alive. 

I told the boss not to let the wife know as I knew she would worry. Even after all that, I still was home from the hospital at the normal time I would have been home. 

Five weeks later I was back at work, the first shift back I was allowed to go down on my own to see how I would go. No problem.

I was transferred to Kellingley pit after Ackton Hall was closed down - quite a few men also went there. 

One of my good mates transferred with me. He was a real comic, a great guy and a great mate. 

I didn’t work many shifts with him as Kellingley was such a big mine. 

It’s still difficult to talk about. 

It was an horrendous and upsetting day, the day I found out he had lost his life. He had been tragically killed in an accident while on his shift.

What was it truly like down there?  

The pit itself seems an eerie place for those who haven't been down, but you get used to it. 

It never really smelt much down there, but when you were going down in the pit cage that had three levels with 120 men on, and there’d always be one who would start eating garlic on purpose on the bottom level and it stunk the cage out, all in a bit of fun though. 

If you turned your lamp off when underground, it was completely black. 

You tried to ignore being claustrophobic, it was mind over matter. 

You’d eat your snap (lunch) down there too. You would have to do your business down there as well; remember, they were long shifts. 

As for uniforms, we had orange workwear the pit supplied, and you could get clean ones every week. 

Everyone who went down the pit had to wear a lamp that fitted onto the helmet. The battery for this was worn on your belt.  This went alongside a self-rescuer which carried a mask in case of a fire. The mask went into the mouth and a clip was worn over the nose. 

Luckily, I never had to use one. 

Ken's oil lamp, lamp and battery to fit to his helmet, and blue first aid bag.

A miner's safety helmet with an Edison clip-on lamp and battery attached from our collection.
It features in our 100 Years of Collecting Online Exhibition.

Deputies and some first aiders also carried a first aid bag. These contained basic tackle, plasters and bandages. 

Most deputies carried a stick. This was handy when you walked over uneven ground as you can imagine it was pretty rough walking at times! 

I also had my stick marked with twelve-inch measures, so you could get a rough idea of the depth of things without getting my tape out. 

Ken's deputy stick, laid out on the table for scale.
There are 12 inch measure lines down the length of the stick. 

The personalised top of Ken's deputy stick 

You couldn’t have an ordinary battery watch down there, it was too dangerous with gases being down there, you had to have a normal wind up one. 

Deputies carried what was known as oil lamps, these were used for checking methane gas. If 'one and a quarter' was detected, we had to leave the district immediately.  

Did it feel like you were part of a community?

Ken: Banter was good down there, good for morale. 

You made mates working quickly down the mines. I made mates for life, still plenty about. I met my best mate to this day there, he was and still is always cracking jokes and making everyone laugh. 

I have lots of good memories, I wish it hadn’t ended so quickly and it was sad to see the pits closed. 

The pits closing was like losing a lot of mates. 

I have no regrets about the choices I made and the work I did in my time as a Deputy. It had its moments, but I wouldn’t change a thing other than losing my mate at Kellingley. 

What can I say? It kept me fit, I had and still have great mates, it was part of an era and time that I lived through and enjoyed. 

Happy days.

"Well, who would have thought it?" - Organising the first Wakefield Pride

It's Wakefield Pride on Sunday 13 August!

Did you know that the first ever Wakefield Pride was in 2005?

Michael was one of the organisers. He kindly did an oral history interview with us in 2017 for our Rainbow Trails project. 

In this clip, Michael tells us about organising the first ever Wakefield Pride. He remembers how the team turned it around from an impending disaster into a 'resounding success'!

Click here for a full accessible transcript of the recording

We've also got a range of posters and wristbands from previous Wakefield Prides in the collection. 

These items were kindly donated by (a different) Michael, one of our brilliant Visitor Experience Assistants:

Poster from the 2010 Wakefield Pride on Sunday 8 August.
Blanche and MarkyMark were key features once again 5 years on!

Poster for the 2010 Pride After Party at the New Union - hosted by MarkyMark and Miss Sordid

Michael's wristband from Wakefield Pride 2010

We also have items kindly donated by Steve Ogilvie, also known as Madam Connie, one of our finest local drag queens! 

They include this Wakefield Pride 10th Anniversary wristband:

 

Steve also kindly donated one of Connie's sickening sequinned dresses, and a stunning red wig, which is currently on display in Moving Stories at Wakefield Museum. 

Madam Connie's wig also proudly features in our 100 Years of Collecting Online Exhibition.

Click here for more about Madam Connie's story, and her costume designer Sue Riley

We wish everyone a happy Pride, and hope we get better weather than the first one had in 2005!

What is Oral History? Find out here in an article written by University of York placement student Lydia

"Her own Empire" - the story of Cliffe's Drapers, Featherstone

Laura, a Public History MA student on placement with us from the University of York, has been exploring the treasures of the ‘Cliffe costume collection’. Read on to discover what they found, and ‘visit’ Miss Cliffe’s Featherstone shop for yourself!

Miss Annie Cliffe outside her shop, from the early 20th century.
Photo copyright of Wakefield Libraries.

On Station Lane, where Cohen’s Chemist now is, Featherstone has its very own hidden history. 

In the early twentieth century Station Lane was a bustling hub of local business and shops. Alongside a newsagents, a greengrocers, and a bookmakers, was a drapers shop, owned by Miss Annie Cliffe. Described as “friendly, kind and considerate”, Miss Cliffe was a pioneering local businesswoman. 

In this blog, we’ll explore Miss Cliffe’s story and how the Cliffe Costume Collection now owned by Wakefield Museums & Castles is a treasure chest of practically untouched working-class clothing and accessories.

A photo of Station Lane, Featherstone, from the early 20th century.
Photo copyright of Wakefield Libraries.

“It was the only place [dad] could get [caps] from”

Originally acquired by Wakefield Museum in the late 1970s, the Cliffe Costume Collection is made up of over 600 items of clothing and accessories. The items are mainly designed for women (blouses, stockings, jerseys, undergarments) but there are also children’s clothes and accessories designed for men, such as flat caps and ties.

A purple blouse, Edwardian-style. Around the neck and front of the blouse there are basting stitches to keep the pleats in place when on display. These stitches would have been easy to remove once the shirt had been purchased. Part of the unsold stock from Cliffe's Drapers now in our collection.

Miss Cliffe’s shop is remembered as being “old-fashioned” and “like Aladdin’s cave” in a series of oral histories recorded in the 1990s. 

The counter on the right was for the many blouses and other items of clothing. The counter facing the door mainly displayed knitting needles, sewing tools and materials for hand-making and mending clothes. 

Although money may have been tight for working-class people, shops like Miss Cliffe’s widened accessibility to the latest fashions. The collection the shop left behind helps show how fashion in Featherstone developed over the decades. 

A green-blue Tam O'Shanter hat that was for sale at Cliffe's Drapers. 

Tam O'Shanters were especially popular during the 1920s and were often worn by young girls and women. They were easy to sew or knit, and relatively cheap to buy. As a result, many young women would make or buy multiple Tam O'Shanters to match with different outfits.

“Her own Empire”

Establishing the origins of Cliffe’s Drapers has been quite difficult as the relevant documents have been lost. Until now, it wasn’t clear whether Miss Cliffe owned her shop or if she managed it for her parents. However, we can now confidently say that Cliffe’s Drapers was owned and ran by Miss Cliffe.

Annie Cliffe was born in Huddersfield on the 29th of March 1880. By the 1911 census she and her family were living at 21 Kimberley Street, Featherstone.

In the 1921 census, she is recorded to still be living with her father (Alfred) and sister (Gertrude), who was working as a teacher. Miss Cliffe is recorded as a “Draper shop keeper” and her employer being “her own account” which implies that this was her own business. The 1921 census is also the earliest account so far that we have found that records the shop. The 1927 and 1932 censuses also record Miss Cliffe along with her shop ownership.

As an unmarried woman from not a particularly affluent family, the fact that she owned and ran her own shop is pioneering. This would have been very rare in the early twentieth century. Women could own businesses and shops at this time, and around 30% of businesses between 1851 and 1911 record female owners. However, the social norms and inequalities of the time would have made it extremely difficult for a single woman to have her own business. Understandably, Miss Cliffe was very proud of her shop, which an oral history interviewee in the 1990s remembers as “her own Empire”.

A pin striped child’s sailor suit jacket with a Peter Pan collar, belt and white buttons.
An unsold garment from Cliffe's Drapers, dating to the early 20th century.

If clothes could talk…

As Miss Cliffe was often reluctant to mark down her stock, she accumulated a large amount in her stockroom when unsold items went out of fashion. Miss Cliffe continued to proudly run her shop until she died, aged in her nineties. Before the shop closed in the late 1960s it was practically a time capsule of working-class clothing! 

Generally, clothes worn by working class people do not survive as they are worn, passed down and repaired until they were irreparable. This makes the collection particularly special, as shines a spotlight on the sort of clothes the ‘ordinary people’ of Featherstone and Yorkshire were wearing in the early twentieth century.

An exhibition will be installed later in 2023 at Featherstone Library, bringing some of Miss Cliffe’s shop stock back to the local high street.

Do you have memories of Miss Cliffe and her drapers shop? Comment below!

Click here to ‘visit’ Miss Cliffe's shop, with our interactive version of Cliffe Drapers!

Click here to go to the recently revamped Twixt, Aire and Calder website, full of photographs from Wakefield Libraries’ Local Studies archives.

How To Do Oral History - A Guide

After our previous blog post on ‘What is Oral History?’, you might be wondering where to start collecting your own stories! Here's How to Do Oral History - A Guide.

In her final blog, Lydia challenges you to bring out your inner historian and collect your own oral histories. They could even feature in the Moving Stories exhibition…

 

As part of the New Library and Museum project, Wakefield Museums and Castles are reviewing their current oral history archives and looking to interview more members of the public. Moving Stories, the new exhibition at Wakefield Museum, has created a perfect opportunity to share some of these oral histories with local people.

One of Tom Bailey's drawings on display in the Moving Stories exhibition

Have you ever wanted to ask a relative what it was like to grow up in Wakefield or what it was like to immigrate to the area from another country? You may have a neighbour who was part of the mining industry or worked in one of the liquorice factories. You may know someone who has been involved with Wakefield Pride or the Rhubarb Festival.

 

In our previous blog posts, we’ve explored Sue Riley’s memories of creating drag outfits. We also explained just what an oral history is. Now, we are giving you the tools to record your own oral histories

 

Want to get started? Here’s our top tips for collecting oral histories!

Some gents having a chat in Fryston, taken by Jack Hulme between 1935 and 1955

Top Tips for doing Oral Histories

Choose a comfortable and safe space when conducting the interview – often, it is best to use the interviewee’s home or an area that is familiar to them.

 

It is also useful to choose somewhere with little to no background noise (if possible). Remember to mute your phone!

 

Think about how you communicate with the other person – a little bit of encouragement goes a long way for their confidence. Think about your eye contact, body language and other visual cues. There are lots of ways to show that you’re interested without interrupting or breaking the flow of their story.

 

Using a mix of specific and more open questions allows for insightful discoveries. It is always a great idea to prepare some questions while allowing room for the conversation to develop naturally.

 

A response may spark a new question in your head, but it is important not to interrupt. Listen closely and take notes of any points you would like to circle back to and expand on.

 

Remember to focus on their personal experience! It is easy for us to discuss an experience or how it affected other people rather than reflect on our feelings. Try and bring the interviewee back to their own position in these circumstances.

In the video above, Jo talks about her experience of doing 'Selfie Pantomimes' during the COVID-19 Lockdowns. This story would be hard to demonstrate with an object, but comes to life in Jo's Oral History recording! 

What are the benefits of Oral Histories?

 

Oral histories bring history and museum collections to life.

 

Providing a human angle to a time in history can make it easier for people to relate, connect, or empathise with the stories. Hearing a person’s story in their own words and dialect can be really moving and revealing, and you get a sense of their personality and character.

 

Steph Webb, Senior Officer for Curatorial and Exhibitions with Wakefield Museums and Castles, particularly loves hearing people’s accents and dialects in oral history. She says it helps establish a sense of place and gives a powerful feeling of authenticity. It’s also what is so fantastic about the current Moving Stories exhibition.

 

Oral histories can help address the problems with museum collections and tell stories that aren’t represented or have previously been hidden. Sometimes, physical objects on specific topics are hard to find. An oral history can allow you to still capture and share the story even where you don’t have the objects.

 

What are the challenges of Oral History?

 

While it is always interesting to hear how someone remembers an event or story, we have to remember that memory is subjective, so it may not always be 100% accurate.

 

An important aspect to remember is that not everyone realises their story is important or worth sharing. They believe they have nothing interesting to say and are reluctant to share their experience, even when it is exactly what we are looking for!

 

Similarly, some people can be hesitant to share their stories, and this could be for many reasons. Maybe this will be the first time sharing it, they may not be sure about how you will tell their story afterwards. Perhaps they just aren’t confident speaking to others.

 

Building trust and rapport with the interviewee is essential to get the best out of your oral history recording.

A visitor writing their story onto a postcard and submitting it at the Moving Stories exhibition at Wakefield Museum

Get in touch

Have you got a story you’d like to share? Drop us an email at museums@wakefield.gov.uk. We’d love to hear from you!

Why not visit the Moving Stories exhibition at Wakefield Museum for some inspiration?